


My Daughter's Best Friend

by ximeria



Series: 2017 Bimonthly Shorts (x-men AUs) [22]
Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-02-02 14:21:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12728256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ximeria/pseuds/ximeria
Summary: Oh, if you ask Erik it's great that his daughter loves Charles. So does Erik. He's just not sure Charles likes him that way and Lorna will kill him if he makes a mess of it and ruins their friendship.





	My Daughter's Best Friend

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know. Fluff? Fluffy fluff? I needed something warm and fluffy after re-reading CLAMP mangas? It's all the blood and maiming - I needed something soft and cuddly. So there you. Fluff for the sake of fluff LOL.
> 
> The original idea was off Tumblr here:  
> http://one-heck-of-a-guy-amiright.tumblr.com/post/145121075553
> 
> -'you babysit my kid(s) and they think you’d be perfect for me and we laugh it off but secretly I’ve fantasised about it a few times’ au

Erik cursed his employer again. He'd have thought moving from working for Shaw to working for Frost would have eased his workload enough that he wouldn't get called into work on a Saturday.

To be fair, Emma didn't do it to him as often as Shaw had but it was still a pain in the ass and it didn't make him feel any less bad about ringing Charles' doorbell at nine on a Saturday morning.

Lorna was still hanging off his shoulder, half-asleep, her favourite plushie held in a chokehold.

 _"The door's open,"_ Charles' voice rang in his mind. Not nearly as sleepy as Erik felt the time of the day warranted.

"I felt your special brand of annoyance about ten minutes ago," Charles told him good naturedly as he took Lorna off Erik and handed him a travel mug of coffee. For someone who boasted a cupboard full of tea, Erik felt Charles was far too good at making coffee as well. Or maybe it was just Charles' ability to time the delivery of it right?

"Thought it best to placate me with coffee?" Erik asked, curbing the urge to hug the man for it. Instead he manfully refrained and handed over his sleepy daughter.

"Can't have you killing someone on the way into work, now can we?" Charles asked, his lips pursed in an almost grin, cradling Lorna as she muttered something unintelligible and snuggled into his arms.

Erik toasted him with the travel mug, not at all envious of his kid. "For the greater good?"

"For the greater good," they chanted in unison, before Charles cracked up. "Yes, now go, I'm sure Emma wouldn't ask you into work on a Saturday morning if there wasn't truly an emergency."

Erik made a face. Yes, Charles was right, but the software department of Frost Inc. wasn't really his area to boss around except when they fucked something up so greatly it impacted what was his domain: the drone department.

"I'll take care of Lorna - I think we're somewhere on season 2 of Pokemon at the moment and she's been asking me for the past few days when we were going to continue watching," Charles said, waving him off.

"You're the only adult I know who'll voluntarily submit yourself to that stuff," Erik said gruffly.

"You'd be surprised," Charles said with a grin. "Now, off you go. Text me when you leave work and I'll make sure there are enough pancakes for you as well."

Erik shot Charles' kitchen a mourning look. Saturday morning in front of the tv with Lorna, Charles and Charles' pancakes...

"The sooner you solve this, the sooner you'll be back," Charles told him, the softness of his mind enveloping Erik's for a moment and then he really was running for it. If he timed it right, he could be on and off the subway in the shortest time possible.

\---

Through the day, working through the absolute shit work the software department had done with his drones, Erik kept getting sidetracked by the thought of how his baby girl was doing and how Charles was doing and…

Erik shook his head. Just because Charles was a nice guy, who would happily take Erik's daughter and keep her company at the strangest times of the day, didn't mean it was okay for Erik to perv on him. Even if the guy was pretty and cute and very much Erik's type.

And if it had just been perving, that was one thing.

Erik tweaked a few things in the drone's software and one of the propellers attempted to turn. If he'd just wanted into the man's pants that would have been one thing. Charles was plenty attractive and Erik would have totally hit that if he'd run into him in a nightclub. But not only was Charles the unofficial babysitter for Erik's daughter when he couldn't find anyone else on short notice, but the man was also insanely intelligent and that wasn't exactly a turnoff for Erik. On the contrary.

It wasn't as if Erik wasn't aware that Lorna would quite happily have her 'Uncle Charles' as a more integrated part of their lives, but Erik wasn't sure how Charles felt about it. Lorna had brought it up a couple of times when they'd been together for an afternoon of what Charles lovingly called 'saving his sanity' - those times when writing on his articles and books drove him a little crazy. However, both Charles and Erik had laughed and put it off as a joke.

Except when Erik was alone, his thoughts often turned back to Charles and how nice those days were when the three of them spent time together. With Erik's, at times, erratic schedule and Charles' more flexible one due to his writing, they fit around Lorna quite well when she wasn't at daycare.

The question was, as important as Lorna was in his life, Erik had to ask himself if he'd spent as much time with Charles, as he did now, if she hadn't been there.

He'd like to think that the question to that was a resounding 'yes'. The fact that Charles obviously adored Lorna didn't hurt the case one bit.

This Saturday Erik managed to not kill anyone, even the idiot from software development who'd screwed up the careful coding Erik had given the drones. Of course they'd done it just as the hardware was to be shipped off for the final testing which had been why Erik couldn't have put it off until the Monday. Oh well, fixed, another world-ending mishap at work averted. He texted Charles and hurried back home to at least be able to enjoy some of the weekend.

The adrenaline rush of having to think on his feet had long since left him and Erik was feeling pretty tired when he came back to find Charles in the kitchen with Lorna seated at the kitchen table. 

"Daddy! Uncle Charles is making pancakes with blueberries!" Lorna waved her crayon at him, most of the table full of half-finished pictures.

Erik grinned at her and leaned down to kiss her on the cheek, and without thinking about it, he straightened up and did the same to Charles who'd come over with plate full of freshly made pancakes.

The flush spreading on Charles' face spoke volumes and Erik was fairly sure that he was sporting much the same himself.

"Sit down and eat your pancakes," Charles managed to tell him, a small smile on his lips.

Erik cleared his throat, a quick check and he could tell Lorna hadn't noticed as she was still deeply focused on a purple blob on her paper.

 _"Sit down and eat your pancakes,"_ Charles repeated in his head. _"And it's about time you made a move, you dumbass."_

Erik stared at him, but let Charles maneuver him into a seat. Maybe he'd been overthinking it all? Trying to fight a widening grin, he dug into the pancakes as Charles put a cup of fresh coffee in front of him, his hand lingering on Erik's shoulder as it always did.


End file.
